Pitching Tents
by Silindro
Summary: Oneshot. Sakura is great with camping equipment, especially when it happens to be Kakashi's.


Note: Three year hiatus and here I am, a ghost in the mix. Does any of the old crowd still write anymore? (If so you should totally get back in touch with me!) Got talked into marathon sessions of Naruto after a long break and of course I fell back into this mess. Hopefully I haven't lost my touch. I'm sure you'll all let me know, yeah?

Enjoy.

**Pitching Tents - **

Teambuilding. That's what Tsunade called it. One week of roughing it in the woods with no rations, no tents, no weapons, and no complaints.

Kakashi, as the leader of the group, knew that they were being tossed out of the city for a couple of days to give some of the lesser experienced ninja a chance to shine. With so many jounin behind the walls, the chuunin students had almost no chance to prove themselves. There seemed no better way to give them opportunity than to get rid of their only direct competition for higher experience (and higher pay) missions.

Many of the group saw the exercise as a weeklong vacation from responsibility. Kakashi saw the exercise as the perfect chance to catch up on some reading. The latest edition of Icha Icha had been sitting on his shelf for weeks. Tsunade had kept him far too busy and he hadn't had the chance to read it.

So with book in hand, he took a group of fifteen or so jounin into the forest to face nature.

By day four, everyone was missing home. The majority complaint was that the mission was pointless. Everything that needed to be known had been learned well before the Hokage-mandated nature walk. They were experienced ninja, not genin learning how to track a target in the woods. Nomadic wandering just wasn't doing it for anyone.

It was around the time that Genma had accused Kotetsu of stealing his 'toilet leaves' that Kakashi decided enough was enough. They were taking a break. It was time to start a fire, roast some fish, and enjoy the rest of their unprompted vacation in one spot.

"Gather some firewood," he ordered two of his kohai. "And you," he pointed at a Hyuuga whose name he couldn't remember, "take some of the others down to the river and catch some fish."

Sakura stood nearby, waiting for him to finish handing out instructions. In the four days they had been running around the woods with their companions, they hadn't had the chance to spend more than a few minutes together. Even then there hadn't been much more than a few knowing looks and short words of anticipation. The training was wearing on both of them.

Part of the problem stemmed from timing. Their relationship was still new.

It had started on the training field. Constant sparring sessions and the occasional minor emergency room visit turned into sparring sessions off the field and a twice-a-week visit to the hospital. From there things had moved at a casual pace through the front door, into the bedroom, and finally between the sheets. It was awkward to talk about, and neither one had mentioned anything to friends or subordinates for fear of retaliation or worse. It had only been a short five years since the chuunin Team Seven had grown into their jounin roles. Teacher and student weren't easily forgotten.

Kakashi turned to Sakura as the last of the jounin wandered off.

"You sure know how to keep them busy," she grinned. "Think you might be able to sneak away tonight? I have something I'd like to show you."

"Is it directly related to our mission?" he asked while walking the few feet over to share the tree she was leaning against.

"Well, it's very _educational_," she implied. The grin on her face got bigger.

Kakashi reached out to run a finger along Sakura's arm. He could see the goose bumps rise in the wake of his touch. When they were alone, finger tracing was a game they often played. The simple touch was enough to bring a blush to her cheeks.

He leaned in close and whispered into her lips, "I hope it has something to do with tents."

- ! -

As the evening wore on and the jounin finished their various scavenging missions, everyone began to gather back at the campsite for dinner and conversation. It was the same routine every night, and mostly the same conversation too.

Kakashi found himself on the outside of the group, leaning his back against the base of a tree. He had just enough light left to read through the last of his Icha Icha chapter. He had hoped that maybe by the time the sun set and the sky had turned dark his presence wouldn't be noticed or needed. Slipping away to meet Sakura would be easy then.

"Naruto!"

Kakashi watched the jinchuuriki make his way over to the fire to sit with the other ninja. He was smiling and cracking jokes the second he sat down.

"Are we safe?" Genma asked excitedly. "Is the perimeter secure?"

"I guess you'll find out," Naruto answered. "You're on first watch!"

"Are we still doing that?" Sai asked curiously, not sure if it was a joke.

The group laughed heavily at their teammate's gullibility. They had learned in their time in the forest that Sai was always good for easy amusement. And in return he had been a good sport about all of the teasing that ensued. Kakashi knew that this was part of the end result Tsunade was looking for in the mission.

As their bantering and boisterous storytelling went on, Kakashi sunk back into his book. Occasionally he joined back up with their conversations, opening his ears to whatever it was the group was talking about. Their topics changed frequently, and in the ten or fifteen minutes that had passed, the group had gone from women to weapons to the great outdoors.

Genma was explaining the proper way to assemble a standard issue tent. Naruto, it seemed, preferred a bedroll under the stars in _all_ weather simply because he had never learned how to put a roof over his head without help.

"I just don't see how you could go twenty-three years in this world without having some basic knowledge of base camp preparation," Genma exclaimed. "Kakashi, what have you been teaching him all these years?"

Kakashi looked up at the sound of his name. "I stopped teaching him when he got too old to listen."

"I'm shocked that you ever taught him anything!"

Everyone had a good laugh, completely agreeing with Naruto's well-known stubbornness.

"I had better things to learn than tent building," Naruto pushed. "Being a jinchuuriki is hard work, you know."

"Maybe if you hadn't spent all of your time perfecting those sexy-jutsu…" a voice added from somewhere on the other side of the fire.

"Maybe _you_ should teach me sometime, then!" Naruto shouted back.

"You should ask Sakura for help," Sai insisted. "Kakashi said she helps pitch his tent all the time."

Everyone around the fire stopped speaking and all eyes turned toward the former ANBU operative. He was completely oblivious to the ulterior meaning of his words. Not that what he said has any other meaning than the way most people thought it sounded. Everyone knew the Copy Ninja was a pervert. They just had no idea his perversion extended outside of his books, and with actual women. And with a former student… It was perverse.

"I'm not sure I've ever seen them go camping, though," he pondered out loud.

Eyes drifted over to Kakashi, who sat unmoving under a nearby tree. He seemed oblivious to all the attention, but the crease at the corner of his eye told a different story. It was clear he had heard every word. And it was also clear that he didn't care.

"Kakashi-sensei," Naruto called. "What's going on?" His face was worried, sick at the thought that his best friend and his former teacher might be doing anything other than missions and greeting each other from different sides of the street.

"Hmm?" Kakashi answered, not bothering to look up from his page.

From somewhere just outside of the group everyone could hear a small commotion starting between two people. It didn't take long to realize that Sakura was swearing out loud and shoving away her best friend, Ino, who kept reaching out to grab hold of an arm or shirt or anything else to stop the pink-haired kunoichi from walking.

"I'll kill him," Sakura swore.

"Don't make a scene," Ino pleaded.

"Stop pulling at my hair, Pig!"

Sai frowned in confusion. Obviously Sakura was upset, but he wasn't quite sure why. Was his advice wrong? Was Sakura the wrong person to ask for help? Clearly Kakashi had spoken about her skill…

His thoughts were interrupted as Sakura's fist connected with his jaw. A touch of chakra sent him crashing to the ground five or six feet away. It was a powerful display meant to dissuade anyone else that wanted to open their mouths about anything they heard that had just come out of Sai's.

Even Naruto was quiet, which surprised Sakura. She assumed that he would have had something appalling to say about the matter. His face was just as shocked as everyone else's, though. He was completely speechless.

Sakura, however, had a lot on her mind. Unfortunately, she had somewhere to be. During her short distraction, Kakashi had checked out of the campsite and was assumedly somewhere in the forest waiting on her.

"I'm sure you've all got something you'd like to say," she addressed the crowd as she began to walk into the darkness of the forest. "Save it for later. I've got a tent to go pitch."

**Fin – **

Note: Yeah, too lazy for proofreading. Beta? Nah, haven't used one of those since… 2005? Shocked I got this one finished. If you're interested in more, check my author page. I've got a half dozen or so waiting there for your eager eyes (and reviewing fingers!)

And as usual… _**Silent readers go to fanfiction Hell! Review!**_


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